Howto: access removable media from andLinux

From andLinux

Abstract

Having instant access to hot pluggable or removable media (such as USB sticks) on andLinux can be tricky. There is no direct way to do so from the UI and users typically have to edit fstab or other configuration files, with mixed success. In addition, automatic mounting is not fully supported and the mounted volume may no longer be accessible to Windows.

Workaround

Fortunately, there is a solution to that, using Windows itself and the power of NTFS. Like Unix file systems, NTFS supports mount points, which allows a physical drive to be mounted inside an empty directory and its contents seamlessly displayed. This works for USB drives and CD/DVDs as long as the host drive is formatted with NTFS. The external drive can be formatted with anything that Windows will read.

Here's how to mount a drive as a directory in Windows XP:

Insert the external drive or media

Open Control Panel/Administrative tools

Open Computer Management

Select Disk Management in the storage section

Right-click the desired drive or partition

Select "Change drive letter and path"

Add a mount point to an empty NTFS folder

If you want, you can now remove the drive letter in the previous dialog

andLinux/coLinux having mounted a NTFS partition as cofs will see these subdirectories as genuine NTFS folders. Any automatic volume mounting will be handled by Windows and will be transparent to Linux.

Other low level NTFS features that will show up in mounted cofs partitions are junction points and hard links, which are equivalent to directory symlinks and file hard links in Linux. These features are hidden from the standard UI but can be accessed with free third party tools like Alax.Info NTFS Links.

Accessing non-Windows compatible media

The directions above are the way to go if your media is readable by Windows but what
if it's formatted with a Linux filesystem that Windows won't recognize? The following instructions have been used successfully on Windows Vista.